Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

105 Covid patients dead in W Bengal

- Snigdhendu Bhattachar­ya and Sreyasi Pal letters@hindustant­imes.com

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Thursday that 105 Covid-19 patients had died in the state, 33 of them succumbing to the viral disease, and the rest to co-morbid conditions. The state government also reported 37 new cases on Thursday, taking to 795 the number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19.

This new figure of fatalities was released six days after the state administra­tion said 57 persons who tested positive for Covid-19 had died, and attributed 18 of the deaths to the disease and 39 to “severe co-morbidity.”

Bengal is the only state that has formed a committee of doctors to determine the cause of death among Covid-19 patients.

“Altogether 105 cases have been examined by them, of which they have said 33 died of Covid-19 infection. In 72 other cases, death was caused by co-morbid conditions and Covid-19 was only incidental,” Sinha said.

Meanwhile, the number of containmen­t zones increased. In

Kolkata from 227 on Monday to 264 on Thursday, and in neighbouri­ng Howrah to 70 from 56.

A controvers­y has raged over Bengal’s way of listing virus fatalities, with opposition parties accusing the state of manipulati­ng the number of deaths.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Wednesday said she and her government did not tamper with the numbers and that an expert committee of doctors was conducting the audit independen­tly.

Aa new controvers­y has been brewing over an official order from the superinten­dent of Murshidaba­d Medical College and Hospital asking doctors not to mention Covid-19 in the death certificat­es of patients who had tested positive for the disease.

“The administra­tion is trying to make the superinten­dent a scapegoat,” BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh alleged.

Congress’ Lok Sabha leader and Berhampore MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury echoed Ghosh.

Chief secretary Sinha, refusing to comment on the transfer, said the death audit committee had nothing to do with death certificat­es.

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